Content uploaded by Marc Schut
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Marc Schut on Jan 02, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Integrated systems research for sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture
... When delineating the above, this study recognizes the dual role of the ecopond model for women's empowerment, 3 as both a mechanism to enhance sustainability and an outcome impact of the specific intervention (McDougall 2017;Lau 2020;Lawless et al. 2021). ...
This study explores the sustainability impacts of adopting an ecosystem approach in underutilized homestead ponds (ecoponds) operated by women in Bangladesh. Households with ecoponds have significantly higher fish productivity, fish diversity, and income generation potential compared to households with similar underutilized ponds. Furthermore, certain dimensions of women’s empowerment are improved at the individual and household level (e.g., control of income and productive assets), without, however, addressing wider structural inequalities. Food security impacts are rather inconclusive, as despite the higher consumption of more diverse fish species among ecopond households, there is no significant effect on overall dietary diversity.
... By developing a system thinking practice involving all participants into a collective working process through a mediating tool in order to overcome disciplinary standpoints and give priority to functions, e.g. the modeling exercise initiated by Jean-Pierre Muller during the workshop. And taking care of combining, as a duality, (i) a "systematic" approach: watch the real world as "a (dynamic) system", which relies on considering systems as ontologies, with (ii) a "systemic" approach: perceive ourselves as actors of a system thinking process modeling a diversity of standpoints about the real world at different scales, which relies on considering systems as epistemologies (Hubert & Ison, 2016). With these views, modeling is considered as a collective conceptual action, in order to explore a range of pathways leading to a diversity of instruments for research, decision making, local action, etc. (Paillard et al., 2010). ...
Proceeding of a workshop held within the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock Action network « Restoring value to grassland »of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock.
The World Bank, FAO, the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL), the LIFLOD network and TerrAfrica have organized this workshop hold just prior to the start of the 2016 International Rangeland Congress in Saskatoon (Cn), 17‐22 July 2016 to share current knowledge on the multifunctionality of pastoral systems and to identify development pathways that better articulate visions and perceptions of pastoralism stakeholders at different scales.
How a project is perceived by its stakeholders affects how it is implemented, and how the outcomes of the project are interpreted by the stakeholders influences the impact project can have on those stakeholders. Often this diversity of perspective is considered an impediment to the effectiveness of the project in meeting its goals. Standard project evaluation techniques dependent on linear and conventional methods to assess and present outputs and outcomes from projects fail to consider the complexity in projects. Complexity in a project arises from the involvement of multiple stakeholders from diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and geographies, and having varied perceptions, expectations, and understanding of the project and its aspects.
The overall aim of this PhD is to improve the understanding of evaluation of complex projects by studying the projects from the perspectives of the multiple stakeholders involved in them. The first objective is to explore and understand the approaches to evaluation drawing on perspectives from literature, and observations from the field. The second objective is to understand the perspectives of stakeholders operating at various levels of a complex project on different aspects of the project such as its nature, approach, outputs, and outcomes. The third objective is to relate outcomes at various levels in the project to processes used, as well as associate outputs with outcomes. The fourth objective is to develop an integrated approach to evaluate complex multi- stakeholder projects, which enhances a project’s outcomes and enables learning for the stakeholders involved.
With the aim of improvement in the existing knowledge on evaluating complex projects, the methodological approach is developed from a combination of theories and practices on evaluation. Central themes of the methodology are methodological pluralism, multiple perspectives, systems thinking, and appreciation and learning. To facilitate flexibility in navigating through a variety of theories and perspectives to enable both change and enhancement, the PhD is undertaken and presented as an action research. Three complex projects with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and disciplines are examined in two stages of this thesis. These projects situated on the Chotanagpur Plateau in India with different intervention areas are, i) an agricultural research for development (AR4D) project, ii) a project to develop the skills of community youth to impart education, and iii) a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative. Data are collected from 82 project participants chosen by purposive sampling in the form of narratives, through semi-structured questionnaires.
Findings from examining multiple perspectives were similar across the three studied projects. Stakeholders interpreted the nature and outcomes of the project uniquely. This study confirmed the existence of diverse stakeholder perspectives that were not captured or acknowledged in the evaluation of the three projects. These perspectives, however, were important for the stakeholders in how they identified with the project, how they functioned in it, and eventually, how it impacted their lives. Moreover, largely, there was no cognisance of this diversity in the stakeholders of the project. In instances where the stakeholders were aware of the multiple views, there was no mechanism for interaction of, or sharing those perspectives. Neither did the project stakeholders learn to acknowledge and work with varied perspectives, nor did they learn from multiple views in the project which were different from theirs. Besides the standard outputs and outcomes from the project, the project stakeholders outlined long-term personal changes. In particular, the learning which they underwent was considered profound and significant. The subtle shifts in learning and development of capabilities in project stakeholders were capabilities that enhance their sense of agency and change their worldviews, which they may further utilise to impact the project, themselves, and others.
In considering these findings and addressing the challenge of incorporating complexity in project evaluation, the thesis develops a framework to evaluate complex projects. The framework is complexity-appreciative which acknowledges, appreciates, and integrates multiple perspectives in the design and evaluation of projects. Evaluation frameworks are always dependent on the contexts in which they are applied, and on those who design and use them, and the kind of boundary judgements they make. Hence, the framework provided in this PhD is not a tool to be used at the end of a project to measure its outcomes; rather, it is a process that must be part of a project from inception as a feedback tool to enhance outcomes. The framework can become a means to create spaces and processes in a project to enable stakeholders to share perspectives, listen to others, understand the diversity in the project, and acknowledge, appreciate and learn from each other’s perspectives as well as each other’s process of learning. Such a space will also allow stakeholders to find their voice and purposes in the project, to help each other do the same, and to further develop those purposes
In conservation agriculture, the no-tillage cultivation system and the retention of permanent vegetal cover are crucial to the control of soil erosion by water. This paper analyses the cultivation of maize under no-tillage, with particular reference to the effect produced on soil erosion when weed control is performed by a hand tool (machete), which disturbs the surface of the soil, and to the behavior of the soil cover in these circumstances. The study area is located in the humid tropical mountains of northern Nicaragua (Peñas Blancas Massif Nature Reserve). The results obtained show that 59.2% of the soil surface was affected by appreciable levels of sheet and splash erosion, although the vegetal cover of the soil was relatively high (with average weed and litter cover of 33.9% and 33.8%, respectively). The use of machetes for weed control provoked considerable soil disturbance, which explained the high rates of erosion observed. Moreover, this form of soil management disturbs the litter layer, making it less effective in preventing erosion. The litter remains loose on the soil surface, and so an increase in soil cover does not achieve a proportionate reduction in the area affected by erosion; thus, even with 80–100% weed and litter cover, 42% of the cultivated area continued to present soil erosion.
Dairy development provides substantial potential economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by the scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Ruminant livestock production is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, land-use change, and loss of biodiversity. Improved livestock feeding and forages have been highlighted as key entry point to sustainable intensification, increasing food security, and decreasing environmental trade-offs including GHG emission intensities. In this perspective article, we argue that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. First, we outline the unique position of forages in crop-livestock systems and systemic obstacles to adoption that call for multidisciplinary thinking. Second, we discuss the importance of matching forage technologies with agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and niches, and systems agronomy that is required. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of farming systems modeling to estimate multidimensional impacts of forages and for reducing agro-environmental trade-offs. We conclude that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward sustainable livestock systems in East Africa.
Livestock productivity in East Africa, and especially in Tanzania, remains persistently low, while greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensities are among the highest worldwide. This mixed methods study aims to explore sustainable livestock intensification options that reduce agro-environmental trade-offs across different smallholder farming systems in Northern Tanzania. A smallholder livestock systems typology was constructed, and representative farms simulated with a whole farm multi-objective optimization model. Livestock contributed more than 90% of on-farm GHG emissions, and DAIRY had the lowest GHG emission intensity (2.1 kg CO2e kg⁻¹ milk). All livestock systems had alternative options available to reduce agro-environmental trade-offs, including reducing ruminant numbers, replacing local cattle with improved dairy breeds, improving feeding through on-farm forage cultivation, and minimizing crop residue feeding. Three obstacles to adoption of these technologies became apparent: they require a skillful re-organization of the entire production system, result in loss of some multi-functionality of livestock, and incur higher production risks. Sustainable livestock intensification can be a key building block to Tanzania's climate-smart agriculture portfolio, providing synergies between productivity and income increases, and climate change mitigation as co-benefit. A better understanding of the institutional settings, incentives and coordination between stakeholders is needed to sustainably transform the livestock sector.
Agricultural intensification in the mountains of Central America has increased soil vulnerability to erosion by water. This study was undertaken to analyse the erosion that affects the mixed cultivation of maize and beans at two stages of the crop development cycle (at 3 and 6 months after sowing) in southern Guatemala, together with the influence of the ground and crop canopy vegetal cover on soil erosion. The main aim of this analysis is to establish the soil erosion threshold enabling sustainable agriculture. The results obtained show that the soil surface was severely eroded, with mean values of area affected of 88.4% and 73.5% at 3 and 6 months, respectively. In the 3-month plots, the erosion bore scant relation to the factors analysed. Conversely, the area affected by soil erosion in the 6-month plots was significantly related to the degree of ground cover by weeds and litter, and the erosion threshold was located at 80% of vegetal cover. However, plots with this level of cover did not achieve effective erosion control, due to the low level of plant litter cover (15.7%) compared to that of weeds (75.5%). We conclude that this low content of vegetal residue in the soil, together with the tillage practices employed, explains the large surface area affected by erosion and the impossibility of establishing an erosion threshold.
How transformative processes could be facilitated to improve gender equality and consequently, human well-being, is a key question for moving towards a just and sustainable future. Focusing on southwestern Ethiopia where significant changes in formal institutions related to gender have occurred, we applied the concept of systemic leverage points. We show that changes in formal structures facilitated changes in perceived visible gender gaps, such as increased participation of women in public activities. These, in turn, played an enabling role for changes in community norms, and (to a lesser degree) triggered reconsideration of perceptions about women’s capacities. Both women and men perceived more equal gender relations as being associated with better well-being at the household level. Our results highlight the important role of interactions between leverage points for gender equality, suggesting important insights can be gained by studying interactions, compared to when shallow (e.g., visible gaps) or deeper leverage points (e.g., social norms) are analyzed in isolation. Our study also demonstrated the general suitability of a leverage-points perspective in gender research, including as an analytical frame to complement gender transformative approaches.
Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) have been playing an increasing role in interventions aiming to generate and scale innovations in agricultural systems. However, the contribution of MSPs in achieving innovations and scaling has been varied, and many factors have been reported to be important for their performance. This paper aims to provide evidence on the contribution of MSPs to innovation and scaling by focusing on three developing country cases in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. Through social network analysis and logistic models, the paper studies the changes in the characteristics of multi-stakeholder innovation networks targeted by MSPs and identifies factors that play significant roles in triggering these changes. The results demonstrate that MSPs do not necessarily expand and decentralize innovation networks but can lead to contraction and centralization in the initial years of implementation. They show that some of the intended next users of interventions with MSPs–local-level actors–left the innovation networks, whereas the lead organization controlling resource allocation in the MSPs substantially increased its centrality. They also indicate that not all the factors of change in innovation networks are country specific. Initial conditions of innovation networks and funding provided by the MSPs are common factors explaining changes in innovation networks across countries and across different network functions. The study argues that investigating multi-stakeholder innovation network characteristics targeted by the MSP using a network approach in early implementation can contribute to better performance in generating and scaling innovations, and that funding can be an effective implementation tool in developing country contexts.
Sustainably intensifying food production will require engaging countries on how to increase and diversify practices and policies in a more sustainable and equitable manner. This is particularly important in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where around 80% of farmland is still managed by smallholders and more than 90% of fishers operate in small scale and subsistence sectors. In this chapter, we explore how aquatic and terrestrial production activities in complex social-ecological systems need to be intensified using a systems approach that integrates both the multiple ecological scales and interdependent components of the landscape and seascape, and the social components that mediate the use and management of natural resources.